Opel Talking with SAIC Regarding China Sales Expansion

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Opel’s sales in the Chinese market have always been on the slow side, the German brand has big competition in the Chinese market, and that big competition comes from its parent company, GM. GM has already introduced several Opel made models in to the Chinese market, the Buick Regal and Buick Excelle are both based on the Opel Insignia and Astra respectively, the Regal and Excelle are already major sellers for the Buick brand in the Chinese market.

Opel’s current China line up consists of just the Antara SUV which is currently made on the same production line as the Chevrolet Captiva in Korea and imported into China, previously Opel sold the last generation of Astra, Vectra and Zafira in the Chinese market but sales never really took off, Opel’s 2011 sales stood at just 5,000 units in total. A proposed agreement with SAIC was reported via the Handelsblatt report, a German media outlet, on Tuesday afternoon, the outlet reported that SAIC are currently talking with Opel regarding a sales agreement which could potentially see the Opel China network expanded from a handful of dealerships to as many as 300 within the next few years.

It is hard to see where Opel could potentially fit in with GM’s China line up, would it be below Buick or above Buick? Would it sit in between Chevrolet and Buick? Obviously as Opel’s are largely European made and imported it will be difficult to hit mass market sales in the short term, but if models such as the Zafira, Zafira tourer and Corsa were made in China Opel might see some traction. GM China’s top man, Kevin Wale, said that GM are aiming to raise Opel’s sales by 10% in 2012. GM have so far been running with Cadillac at the top of the heirarchy with its luxury line up, Buick with the mid range as an affordable premium model and with Chevrolet picking up the economy and younger markets, of course Baojun was created to attract a new level of emerging customer, under this set up brands such as Saab and Opel were squeezed out of the Chinese market.